vaccination teams going door-to-door in
pakistan
they're part of an immunization drive
against polio but these health workers
also need protection
over the past decade more than a hundred
vaccinators have been killed in targeted
attacks
fueled by conspiracy theories and
misinformation
hostile anti-vaxxers are a public health
threat in pakistan in need of an
antidote
especially as the country prepares for
mass immunisations
against covert 19. phase 3 trials are
underway here for chinese vaccine
developer cancino biologics
but researchers are still encountering
mistrust and fear
with this kind of work there are always
misconceptions
in fact anything you do for the first
time
you will come across people who have
this fear factor
part of the problem is our
fundamentalist
people who are trying to inculcate some
uh superstitions and myths into this
that the component of vaccine might be
porcine
it is whether halal or haram and then
maybe that's the reason why
we're still struggling with the polio
vaccine when it comes to the coronavirus
pakistani authorities are also
struggling to communicate the dangers
and the urgent need to stamp it out in a
recent poll more than a third of
pakistani said they'd refuse any covert
vaccine
that became available
for more let's bring in shamil charms
from dw asia shamil
two vaccines approved to emergency use
so far
but how does the government plan to
convince people to take them
well i think the government has not been
doing much
to convince anyone first of all we know
that
two vaccines have been approved by the
government but we do not know
how is the government going to to
vaccinate
uh such a big population so uh unlike
india where we see uh the state-run uh
vaccination drive is happening at the
moment we don't see anything in pakistan
we don't even know when the vaccines
will be available
in the market uh is it going to be a
private sector drive is it going to be a
state-run drive
we are clueless uh at the same time so
many people are reluctant to get
vaccinated
they don't believe that coronavirus
exists so there is we see that there is
virus skepticism in pakistan so it will
be very hard for the government
to convince people to get vaccinated
we don't see a must drive happening
where the
purchases have not been done at the
moment so it's all very chaotic and we
see
that the government does not have a plan
you spoke of skepticism in general when
it comes to the question of
vaccines and vaccination in pakistan and
one immediately thinks of the
polio vaccination drive and the troubles
that it has faced
in pakistan in the past can you explain
for us shamil
why there is such general distrust of
vaccines in pakistan
we have to understand that pakistanis
as a nation they love conspiracy
theories
and it is happening it happens in south
asia within pakistan it's more profound
most people believe that it is a western
conspiracy um
they also believe that bill gates is
trying to
get some chips in their bodies uh with
the with
covet vaccine we see that um
the clergy the islamic uh clerics
are against it uh they have been
summonizing against
the vex the vaccines as if it is a halal
or a haram issue
um many people believe that it is not
halal it is forbidden by sharia
what happened as we see that we see
increasing attacks
all the times uh on polio workers
because there is a skepticism that the
western agents come to pakistan and they
try to use these vaccination tribes
to further their agenda what happened we
must not forget that when osama bin
laden the former al-qaeda leader was
assassinated by u.s troops in
2011. there was
a polio vaccination drive where shakil
afraid who was incarcerated in pakistan
was allegedly involved
as a as a spy for the cia so a lot many
people in pakistan believe that
western countries are behind these
campaigns to
to further their agenda or to make them
uh
non-muslims so all sorts of conspiracy
theories in pakistan
are ripe meanwhile coronavirus cases
continue
to rise in pakistan how is the
government coping
uh not coping at all because i as i said
earlier
we don't see any proper plan by the
government
we don't have the vaccines at the moment
we don't know when are they going to
come to pakistan
there is no social distancing there is
no government
will to tell people to maintain social
distance
there is no lockdown the businesses are
open the shops are open people are
mingling
weddings are taking place so uh nothing
uh
has been seen by the government uh
in that direction shaman challenge from
dw asia thank you very much